Kids help kick off gardening season

Vegetable seeds started indoors give them a head start.

Vegetable seeds started indoors give them a head start.

April 12, 2006

The spring gardening season is under way. I got a plethora of tomato and pepper seeds planted this past week with the help of my daughter and three of my grandchildren. My 5-year-old grandson Brendan Dodson, who lives just up the road a piece from Patricia Ann and me, accompanied me on a 60-mile road trip to Gobles, Mich., to the home of my daughter, Celeste Ann Moerman. Celeste had told her two children, Haven, 4, and Zachary, 3, that I was coming to visit them to start this year's garden. Over the telephone the little ones had said they were excited about my visit. However, they were surprised and overjoyed that their beloved cousin also came to visit. The three little ones were so excited about being able to play together that it was difficult to settle them down for something as mundane as putting seeds into earth. I had saved about a dozen plastic food containers that had held such products as milk, cottage cheese, coffee and honey. On the way up to Gobles I stopped at a garden supply store and bought a 40-pound bag of potting soil. Celeste and I were able to get the little ones to help fill each of our containers with a good six to eight inches of dark potting soil. Using a marking pen, we labeled each of the containers with the variety of seed being planted. We planted 10 varieties of tomatoes, half of which were modern hybrids and the other half were heirloom varieties. We planted several large varieties of tomatoes, the kind that are just great on sandwiches, a variety that is excellent for freezing, three varieties that are good for salads and fresh slicing, a golden variety plus two varieties of cherry tomatoes, which Haven calls "baby tomatoes." We also planted two containers of bell peppers, including a yellow variety that was a gift from the seed company and a rainbow mix of Paul Dodson Dodson Farm peppers that includes green, yellow, red, chocolate and purple varieties. The instructions on the package said we should plant the tomato and pepper seeds six to eight weeks before setting them out in the garden. That will work out just right for planting the tomato seedlings in the garden in late May. Haven used a water hose to give each of the containers a good drink before we put the containers on the ledge of a south-facing window in the basement. The containers will need to be watered occasionally during the next six weeks. On nice warm days, Celeste will take the plants outside to get even more sun and then take them back inside at night. This exposure to outside conditions will help harden the plants before they are set out into the garden. Although it took some coaxing to get the little ones to stop their play to help with the seed planting for a few minutes, I believe they will have fond memories of this work and this is likely to encourage them to become lifelong gardeners. Brenny has also been helping me with some of my yard work. In doing so, Brenny is helping me look at familiar things in a new light. For example, Brenny was attempting to catch earthworms as I pulled back piles of leaves with a rake. I uncovered a section of earth occupied by a large nightcrawler which quickly retreated into its hole before Brenny could grab it. "Do worms have ears?" Brenny asked. "How did it know we were there?" I explained that while worms can't hear, they can feel vibrations that warn them danger is near. A few minutes later Brenny asked me for the name of a little blue flower sprouting profusely in my yard. I told him those were named forget-me-nots. "Why are they named that?" he asked. I wasn't able to answer that question. The Dodson Farm column appears every other Wednesday in the Community section. Paul Dodson can be reached by e-mail at this address: padodson@sbcglobal.net.